[ALAC] [NA-Discuss] Under COVID pressure, info providers choose QR codes over domain names

Evan Leibovitch evan at telly.org
Wed Sep 2 07:50:00 UTC 2020


Hi Claudio,

Thanks for your detailed response.

I note with agreement your indication of  ICANN's clear conflict of
interest in this issue. Were domaining to be eliminated (by regulating or
eliminating secondary-market price markup), the amount of revenue coming to
ICANN (for acquisition and renewals of squatted domains) could be severely
diminished. It is in ICANN's interest to maximize the number of Internet
domains in circulation whether or not they are actually used. ICANN makes
the same money whether a domain is used actively by a registrant, squatted
or purely defensive. So if domain investors can be fooled into buying large
portfolios of domains in the hopes that a few will strike it rich, that
serves ICANN's interest and it has no incentive to do anything to reduce
the revenue from speculation.

If ICANN is disincentivized from reducing speculative domain purchase, its
contracted parties (registrars and registries) are outright hostile to the
idea because (a) their financial hit from action would be greater than
ICANN's and (b) unlike ICANN they don't have to even pretend to care about
the public interest beyond contractual obligation.

Personally I would love it if ALAC (or even a third party such as Citizen
Lab) could be resourced to do research in the consequences of domaining:

   - The size of the problem
   - Its negative added-value
   - Elimination of "memorable domains" as a primary identification for
   Internet-based businesses
   - The numbers of domains that should be useful to both consumers and
   providers of Internet services that are needlessly locked away
   - Reduction of trust (assuming there ever was any) in domains

That last one on trust has been attempted by ICANN (Hi Jonathan!) but IMO
its whole emphasis was trust on issues that domain sellers and domainers
care about, such as level of competition among resellers. Broader questions
that I wanted addressed -- which address the original topic which is why QR
codes are preferred over domain names -- were IMO glossed over and deemed
out of scope by the conflicted, er contracted, parties.

ICANN doesn't want real, independent research done because it knows the
results won't reflect well on its stewardship. OTOH, if research
demonstrates this is a non-issue I will happily drop it.

Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada
@evanleibovitch / @el56


On Mon, 31 Aug 2020 at 17:28, claudio di gangi <ipcdigangi at gmail.com> wrote:

> Evan,
>
> Thank you for these comments.
>
> As one point of reference, a marketplace provider of domain services
> appears to have a very limited data on a small subset of resale domains
> sold in 2018, available on its website:
> https://sedo.com/us/about-us/news-press/newsroom/the-most-expensive-domains-in-2018/.
> From an initial glance, it appears this data set does not contain the
> information necessary to inform your comments.
>
> Your note also tangentially reminded me of an old economic report
> (commissioned by ICANN org in 2010), see:
> https://archive.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/economic-analysis-of-new-gtlds-16jun10-en.pdf
>
> I referred to this document as a "report" because a study would normally
> include developing some form of a hypothesis, conducting observations and
> testing the hypothesis, which could lead to a conclusion or additional
> lines of inquiry. In other words, the way we would normally seek truth
> through the scientific method, which unfortunately becomes quite complex in
> the field of social sciences.
>
> On page 52 of the above linked report, the authors describe a proposed
> study on resale domains in order to assess the competitive effects of new
> gTLDs. The study is described as follows:
>
> "A more direct approach would examine sale prices in different gTLDs of a
> matched sample of second-level domain names. Examination of the same
> second-level domain name in each gTLD should control for many factors that
> influence the value of a domain name and isolate the value of the gTLD
> itself. Thus the study would shed light on the substitutability or relative
> value of domain names on different gTLDs and on the extent of competition
> between gTLDs."
>
> I could be mistaken, but I do not believe that the study described above
> (or any of the proposed studies described in the economic reports) were
> conducted because of the manner in which the overall policy development and
> implementation process unfolded in practice.
>
> Without getting too deep into the weeds, the Board passed a resolution in
> 2006 calling for a study regarding "...the concerns relating to the
> changing domain marketplace and specific concerns....regarding potential
> abuses of ICANN rules as it relates to consumer interests". For additional
> details, see Board minutes here:
> https://www.icann.org/resources/board-material/minutes-2006-10-18-en
>
> This study was not conducted, and in terms of the new gTLD program, in
> taking a quick search online, one can see how convoluted things became as
> described in this article, written by former-Board member Mike Palage,
> available at:
> http://www.pff.org/issues-pubs/ps/2009/ps5.4icanns-economic-reports.html
>
> I believe there are a few important complicating factors that arise in
> this context. One factor relates to the notion that ICANN org (including in
> some circumstances, its contracted business partners) may have an interest
> in a study's outcome, or in the outcome of legal analysis, that may diverge
> from the interests of the public and community at large.
>
> Correlated to this dynamic is the fact that when one party compensates
> another party, one can see the proverb of "he who pays the piper calls the
> tune" becoming relevant.
>
> Of course, this doesn't happen through any type of informal agreement
> between the parties, but arises because there are implied causes and/or
> effects that are inherent as an offspring of the relationship between the
> parties.
>
> To provide an illustrative example, the ePDP team on the Temp Spec
> retained legal counsel who were compensated by ICANN org. On these types of
> complex issues of law and fact, where there are no easy answers - and if
> all else being equal - a law firm, consultant, or economist may have an
> incentive to err on the side of its "client's" interests or worldview. Of
> course, in these cases, the client is ICANN org.
>
> So on that basis, if a study were to be ever performed on ICANN's
> coordination performance, the domain marketplace and consumers, I would
> recommend that ICANN org not commission the work, but that a group such as
> at-large take the helm, if there was adequate interest, justification and
> resources to do so.
>
> Finally, in an attempt to bring more color to your line of inquiry, I
> think some gTLDs have registration requirements regarding the use of domain
> names which may discourage or prevent the primary use being for resale
> purposes. For example, I believe <.biz> has (or had) this type of
> requirement within its domain registration agreement with registrants,
> although I'm not sure to what extent the provision is monitored, enforced,
> or can be effective. Of course, the issue comes full circle back to ICANN's
> contract with the registry. So perhaps depending on the form of the
> registry agreement with ICANN, and the provisions contained therein, the
> relevant parties' interests, it is conceivable that other (perhaps legacy)
> registries could apply restrictions on the use of domains which may affect
> their resale value and/or potential.
>
> Just food for thought...
>
> Cheers,
> Claudio
>
>
>
> On Sun, Aug 30, 2020 at 3:56 PM Evan Leibovitch <evan at telly.org> wrote:
>
>>
>> https://www.campaignlive.com/article/why-humble-qr-code-enjoying-marketing-revival/1690673
>>
>> No surprise to some of us.
>>
>> BTW, is anyone in ALAC -- or the broader community -- checking whether
>> the average price of resale domains is going up or down? Hard to believe
>> it's going up. With all the new gTLDs onboard, is domaining still seen as a
>> worthwhile investment? Was it ever?
>>
>> Over the last few years I've been involved with numerous domain name
>> acquisitions by companies and individuals. A number of patterns have
>> emerged.
>>
>> In almost every case:
>>
>>    - The dozen most logical names were taken by squatters and otherwise
>>    unused.
>>
>>    - The would-be registrant did not buy any of the squatted names.
>>
>>    - In some cases they enquired about the price, which was often more
>>    than an order of magnitude beyond what they were willing to pay, and they
>>    had a good laugh.
>>
>>    - In some cases their choice to bypass the squatted name would ensure
>>    that the name would forever stay unsold. They had registrations and/or
>>    trademarks that would immediately have any subsequent buyer subject to a
>>    UDRP complaint.
>>
>>    - Nobody even made an effort to negotiate the price down, determined
>>    to be not worth the bother
>>
>>    - There's no fear anymore using hyphens within domain names. The
>>    introduction of hyphens always yields a usable registry-fresh domain. This
>>    discovery usually increases the entertainment value of the original
>>    squatter's price.
>>
>> I've always had the opinion that domain resale was a massive scam, and
>> that the practise was long-term harmful to ICANN and broader use of domains
>> as identification. Indeed the practise of one of the few that extracts
>> value from (rather than add value to) the Internet. Furthermore, it has led
>> to many of the most potentially-useful names being unused. As a result,
>> "memorable" Internet domains have slipped from "need to have" to "nice to
>> have" to "I'll take anything moderately close because it's not a primary
>> source of identification".
>>
>> I look forward to the day when domainer portfolios inevitably achieve the
>> same value as postage-stamp collections have now.
>>
>> Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada
>> @evanleibovitch / @el56
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